Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How to Collaborate When You Don’t Have Consensus

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I really like this article because it addresses the question of how to work together in real life. In real like, you don't construct shared meaning or agree on values and goals. You might not agree on much at all. This is when traditional calls for 'collaboration' are at their most facile. As the author writes, "teams collaborate: A boss leads everyone to see the problem the same way (probably the way the boss does), and then to agree on a way forward." In any sort of non-hierarchal arrangement, that doesn't work. You have to learn to work differently. As Antanas Mockus, a former mayor of Bogotá, said, "The most robust agreements are those that different actors support for different reasons." Do read this article. And when you advocate 'collaboration' as a part of education, or something that should be taught, think of the more complex picture this article evokes.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Dec 22, 2024 6:55 p.m.

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